Brandeis' shameful decision

Thursday

Apr 17, 2014 at 6:00 AM

By Dianne Williamson

Why is Brandeis University afraid of Ayaan Hirsi Ali?

The 44-year-old scholar is a fearless advocate for women's rights and a fellow at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government. She's also a critic of Islam who appears in "Honor Diaries," a harrowing new film about violence against women in Muslim countries.

Those latter credentials prompted the Waltham university to withdraw its offer of an honorary degree, after a petition spearheaded by Muslim students claimed that the invite was a "blatant and callous disregard" for the feelings of Muslim students and violated their "rights," whatever that means. The Council on American-Islamic Relations and other advocacy groups also opposed the invitation.

"While we are not belittling the severity of the issues that she raises, she uses hate speech against Islam as a means to do this," claimed Brandeis senior Sarah Fahmy of the Muslim Student Association, who started the petition.

Of course, one woman's hate speech is another woman's reality, and the Muslim culture is not exactly known for its tolerance when religion is involved. Regardless, this higher institution of intellectual freedom promptly bowed to the pressure.

Granted, Hirsi Ali has spoken harshly of Islam. In 2007 she called it a "nihilistic cult of death" and the "new fascism." She said Allah "inspires jihadism and totalitarianism" and claimed Islam and the West are locked in a "clash of civilizations."

Yup, that's fiery rhetoric, all right. But — without getting mired in analytical debate — so what? Since when do college students have the "right" to be protected from ideas that offend them?

Last week, the Wall Street Journal published the commencement speech Hirsi Ali would have given. This is part of it:

"I stand before you as someone who is fighting for women's and girls' basic rights globally. And I stand before you as someone who is not afraid to ask difficult questions about the role of religion in that fight. … The connection between violence, particularly violence against women, and Islam is too clear to be ignored."

Hirsi Ali's views aren't formed in a vacuum. Born a Muslim in Somalia, she was forced by her grandmother to undergo genital mutilation at age 5. She later renounced Islam and moved to the Netherlands, where she became a member of parliament.

She wrote the screenplay for the film "Submission," which focused on the shameful abuse of Muslim women by Muslim men. In 2004 the film's director, Theo van Gogh, was murdered by a Muslim extremist. Pinned to his jacket was a threat on Hirsi Ali's life and she lived under police protection.

So now Brandeis students will be protected from her, and the decision is shameful. Brandeis claimed that it was unaware of her previous statements — as though the Internet had yet to be invented — and called them "inconsistent with Brandeis University's core values."

Please. The school betrayed its core values by caving to pressure from Muslims and pandering to political sensitivities.

This isn't the first time a college speaker has caused controversy. Closest to home, Vicki Kennedy was uninvited as Anna Maria College's commencement speaker in 2012 due to her pro-abortion views.

I like the example set in 2007 by Columbia University. When the odious (now former) Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was invited to speak, Columbia President Lee Bollinger allowed him to do so after spelling out his offensive positions. As far as I know, no student suffered a case of the vapors.

Rather, they were offered provocative, opposing ideas and encouraged to engage in critical thinking. That's the role of any good university — too bad Brandeis chose to embarrass itself instead.